KALAMAZOO, MI -- Kalamazoo will pass up $92,000 in federal funds to stay out of immigration enforcement.

The City Commission passed a July resolution prohibiting resources from assisting federal agencies in separating undocumented children from their families and detaining people based on their immigration status. The city won't accept a U.S. Department of Justice grant due to concern that requirements to comply with immigration enforcement would clash with the resolution.

City Manager Jim Ritsema said there wasn't enough time to definitively answer whether the grant would violate Kalamazoo's immigration stance before a Nov. 16 deadline. For now, it's up for interpretation, he said.

Department of Justice grants were in previous years without controversy.

New requirements added to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program since President Donald Trump took office deny federal funds if cities don't comply with immigration enforcement.

Chicago officials filed a lawsuit against the DOJ in August over the same grant. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called rules withholding federal public safety grants from sanctuary cities "blackmail."

This year's agreement would have required Kalamazoo to let officials obtain information regarding citizenship or immigration status, "interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien" about their right to be in the United States, without a warrant and assist officials in removing undocumented immigrants from the country.

Commissioner Shannon Sykes Nehring said elected officials knew when they passed the resolution that they may have to give up federal money to uphold their values.

"It does not surprise me that (the Trump administration) started with funding for police departments," Sykes Nehring said. "I imagine in this effort to round up undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers, the one department they need the most from municipal cities to participate is the police department."

Sykes Nehring pushed commissioners to take a closer look at the 2018 grant language during a Nov. 5 meeting. Wednesday, she said officials will need to be vigilant in reading the fine print when it comes to future grants.

"At some point going to have to put money where our mouth is," she said.

Grant documents presented to the Kalamazoo City Commission in 2015 and 2016 made no reference to undocumented immigrants.

The new requirements first appeared in 2017. City Commissioners accepted that $85,242 grant in July, during the same meeting it passed its immigration resolution. The 2017 grant was accepted with no discussion at the time.

The city will reach out to the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and El Concilio Kalamazoo to have further discussions about how to handle future grant conflicts.

"It's going to be a case-by-case basis, and we'll just have to look before we even apply (to see) whether those conditions exist," Ritsema said.

The Kalamazoo City Commission did not act on a vote scheduled for Nov. 5. Commissioners opted to make a decision during a special meeting this week.

Public notices for a scheduled Nov. 15 meeting were removed from City Hall and online Wednesday morning. The meeting was called by mistake, Ritsema said.

Kalamazoo's Department of Public Safety and the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office submitted a joint application to purchase equipment to support local law enforcement. KDPS would have gained $71,884 and $20,316 would have went to the sheriff's office.

Kalamazoo County government adopted a similar policy to the city of Kalamazoo's, prohibiting government resources from assisting family separation.

KDPS Chief Karianne Thomas said the funds would help the department upgrade video equipment used in interviews and purchase a powerful police microscope to test drugs.

Ritsema said the city will find another way to fund police equipment.

"We've got other capital funds that we could tap into," he said. "In the grand scheme of things we can find (the money). It's not going to set us back at all."